Capt_Keith
Ol'Salt
Joined: Oct 18, 2004
Posts: 1596
Location: Holden Beach NC/Myrtle Beach SC
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Squid Row
Ol'Salt
Joined: Jan 11, 2005
Posts: 2135
Location: 212 Miles too far to the West
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 Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 4:06 pm Post subject: |
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Too late!
Even though a new assessment is coming out, they decided to shut it all down..
Federal council approves red snapper ban in 5,000-square-mile area off Georgia, Florida
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Fishermen will be prohibited from catching red snapper and some other snapper and grouper species in the southeast Atlantic in a nearly 5,000-square-mile zone off the coasts of Georgia and Florida under a measure passed by a federal fisheries management council Wednesday.
Members of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted 9-4 in favor of the ban that supporters hope eventually will restore the red snapper's population over the next three decades.
Opponents, though, doubt studies showing that the population is overfished and said Florida fishermen already have been squeezed by restrictions in the Gulf of Mexico due to the BP PLC oil spill.
Wednesday's vote extends for an undetermined time an interim red snapper ban that was to expire in December.
Opponents said the council at least should have waited to pass the measure until December, when there will be a new red snapper population count. The new survey will help the council determine how long the new ban should last. The terms of the new ban also could be tweaked once the new population survey is released, a scenario that creates uncertainty for fisherman who are now planning how to adjust.
"It's hard to have a business plan and decide how you're going to work, how you're going to make your boat payments, how you're going to make your house payments when the rules keep changing," said Charles Phillips, a seafood wholesaler from Georgia who also is a council member. "It's hard on everybody."
The ban prohibits fishing red snapper in an area of the Atlantic stretching from North Carolina to Florida. Fishing other snapper-grouper species also would be banned in depths of 98 to 240 feet in a nearly 5,000-square-mile zone of ocean stretching from an area in Georgia about 15 miles north of Fernandina Beach, Fla., down to around Melbourne, Fla.
Supporters of the ban said fishermen often catch red snapper accidentally in this area when fishing for the other species. Council members reduced the size of this zone by about 1,300-square-miles before the vote.
The ban will take effect later in the year after it is reviewed by the National Marine Fisheries Service and then U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.
Short-term hardships faced by fishermen will be offset by the health of the red snapper population, which will benefit fisherman down the road, supporters said.
"There's nothing that has had a larger impact on the fishing community than this," said Charles Duane Harris, the council's chairman. "People think we don't care but we do care. We care tremendously."
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Squid Row II
1995 Shamrock, 351 Indmar Inboard
Flounder Pounder II
1994 Sandpiper Skiff, 40HP Yamaha Egg Beater |
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